A weekly feature on the blog, NOT Knit by Nat highlights great patterns by budding designers on Ravelry.
For
the most part, I see something I like and knit it up. Lately I just pick up and knit - like
this hat and fingerless mitts I whipped up last Friday night.
A haphazard design knit purely for the sake of aesthetics.
(knit by me on the fly, no pattern, in Berroco Alpaca held double with some grey laceweight)
But sometimes a design has more of a story behind it. Like Sara’s Cobo Alice, which is enriched in history!
From Sara's Ravelry page:
This is a knitted version of an island made ragdoll called Cobo Alice that was popular in Guernsey during the Victorian era.
She was made by the Guille family who lived on the West coast of the island at Cobo, hence her name. The whole family including the children, were engaged in making these dolls, they became so popular.
The original dolls had cloth bodies and clothing made from oddments of material in a variety of colours and a stockinette head. The doll was filled with sawdust and the head features painted on later, often rather crudely!
This knitted version is an attempt to capture as many of the doll’s original features as possible so that she will be instantly recognisable to the Islanders of Guernsey and beyond, but with a slight softening of her occasional startling features.
She wears the traditional Guernsey women’s dress of the time, including the distinctive and elaborate sun bonnet (pronounced “bonnay”).
The original dolls have mostly been lost, having been rotted away by the acidic sawdust filling. Cobo Alices occasionally come up for auction and command high prices.
I have been lucky enough to have been gifted a copy of this pattern by Sara and I was hoping to attach my version here on this post, but I am still waiting on my doll eye order to come in. I can tell you it's a wonderfully written pattern and my daughter actually gasped out loud when she looked at all the pictures. The details are absolutely precious. I will be sure to show my finished product here soon!
